We had one, the Republic Wireless Extend Home. They discontinued the service, and we left RW shortly after, since there were no longer offering anything different.
You can find info in the Republic forums about factory resetting the device and subscribing to voice over Internet services using it, but it was significantly more burdensome than the Republic version.
Best thing now may be Google Voice and find a similar device, but I recall they were going to discontinue that as well.
Edit - the Google Voice devices are the OBi 200 series, and apparently they have an End of Life in December this year, whatever that means. The service I guess is free if you buy the device.
> Republic Wireless Extend Home.
Thanks. That might be what I vaguely remember.
Did it make a sound when you got a call coming from that box, not just from a phone you have attached to that box?
I don't remember if the Extend Home adapter rang when a call came in or if it just made the attached phone ring.
Republic used the Grandstream 801/802. These are Analog Telephone Adapters (ATA's). You can find manual for the device at the following link:
https://documentation.grandstream.com/article-categories/ht8xx-series/
I checked and could not find a reference for adapter behavior when called.
>Republic used the Grandstream 801/802.
RW's Extend Home adapter was a Grandstream HT801 with custom firmware. The Grandstream HT802 is the two-line variant of the HT801. RW did not use the HT802.
I just remembered that it also had the feature that if you plugged it into a phone jack in your house instead of directly to a phone, that all the other jacks in your house would then be active through the Extend Home. I guess in that way you could put a ringer on one jack and a phone on another.
I just looked in a box that I thought had one old school desk phone in it.
What I though was a desk phone was really a wall phone, how's that for antique style, but there was another box in the box, and in that was a desk phone.
Next step is find out if I can use it on T-mobile.
If so then I hunt for a used Home Extender, which was a coined name for a Grandstream HT801 or HT802 or similar device.
It would sure be nice to be able to have a phone that couldn't leave the desk and whose ringer volume is not affected by my computer's volume control or the phone's volume control.
>You can find info in the Republic forums about factory resetting the device and subscribing to voice over Internet services using it, but it was significantly more burdensome than the Republic version.
Republic's Community forums were shut down as of [November of last year](https://republicwireless.com/pages/community). A small group created [rwusers.com](https://rwusers.com). Others whether still RW subscribers or not are welcome. RW Users is not affiliated in any way with RW by DISH and is service provider agnostic.
>Best thing now may be Google Voice and find a similar device, but I recall they were going to discontinue that as well.
Edit - the Google Voice devices are the OBi 200 series, and apparently they have an End of Life in December this year, whatever that means. The service I guess is free if you buy the device.
OBi 200 series devices are indeed end of life. End of life means no further firmware updates. Furthermore the OBi online portal used to setup OBi 200 series devices shuts down in December of 2023 as well. The portal is the only official means of setting up OBi devices for use with GV. It is unknown if GV service configured on an OBi device prior to shut down of the portal will continue working. Otherwise, should Google do anything with GV requiring a firmware update for OBi devices after December 2023, no such update would be forthcoming.
OBi 200 series device hardware will continue working after December 2023. It is possible to configure other Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services using the devices local web interface. Officially, it is not possible to configure GV using the local interface.
Rolandh!?? I didn't realize you were on reddit too! Are southpaw and louisdi here too? I use a different username here, since I was stuck with my first name + last initial on the RW forums.
I drop into Reddit on occasion. I think the same is true for southpaw and louisdi but don't know about the frequency. Some familiar names from RW's old Community are at [rwusers.com](https://rwusers.com) as well.
We had one, the Republic Wireless Extend Home. They discontinued the service, and we left RW shortly after, since there were no longer offering anything different. You can find info in the Republic forums about factory resetting the device and subscribing to voice over Internet services using it, but it was significantly more burdensome than the Republic version. Best thing now may be Google Voice and find a similar device, but I recall they were going to discontinue that as well. Edit - the Google Voice devices are the OBi 200 series, and apparently they have an End of Life in December this year, whatever that means. The service I guess is free if you buy the device.
> Republic Wireless Extend Home. Thanks. That might be what I vaguely remember. Did it make a sound when you got a call coming from that box, not just from a phone you have attached to that box?
No sounds from the box itself, only the attached phone.
I don't remember if the Extend Home adapter rang when a call came in or if it just made the attached phone ring. Republic used the Grandstream 801/802. These are Analog Telephone Adapters (ATA's). You can find manual for the device at the following link: https://documentation.grandstream.com/article-categories/ht8xx-series/ I checked and could not find a reference for adapter behavior when called.
>Republic used the Grandstream 801/802. RW's Extend Home adapter was a Grandstream HT801 with custom firmware. The Grandstream HT802 is the two-line variant of the HT801. RW did not use the HT802.
I just remembered that it also had the feature that if you plugged it into a phone jack in your house instead of directly to a phone, that all the other jacks in your house would then be active through the Extend Home. I guess in that way you could put a ringer on one jack and a phone on another.
I just looked in a box that I thought had one old school desk phone in it. What I though was a desk phone was really a wall phone, how's that for antique style, but there was another box in the box, and in that was a desk phone. Next step is find out if I can use it on T-mobile. If so then I hunt for a used Home Extender, which was a coined name for a Grandstream HT801 or HT802 or similar device. It would sure be nice to be able to have a phone that couldn't leave the desk and whose ringer volume is not affected by my computer's volume control or the phone's volume control.
You could try Vonage? It's like $10/month but looks a lot simpler.
>You can find info in the Republic forums about factory resetting the device and subscribing to voice over Internet services using it, but it was significantly more burdensome than the Republic version. Republic's Community forums were shut down as of [November of last year](https://republicwireless.com/pages/community). A small group created [rwusers.com](https://rwusers.com). Others whether still RW subscribers or not are welcome. RW Users is not affiliated in any way with RW by DISH and is service provider agnostic. >Best thing now may be Google Voice and find a similar device, but I recall they were going to discontinue that as well. Edit - the Google Voice devices are the OBi 200 series, and apparently they have an End of Life in December this year, whatever that means. The service I guess is free if you buy the device. OBi 200 series devices are indeed end of life. End of life means no further firmware updates. Furthermore the OBi online portal used to setup OBi 200 series devices shuts down in December of 2023 as well. The portal is the only official means of setting up OBi devices for use with GV. It is unknown if GV service configured on an OBi device prior to shut down of the portal will continue working. Otherwise, should Google do anything with GV requiring a firmware update for OBi devices after December 2023, no such update would be forthcoming. OBi 200 series device hardware will continue working after December 2023. It is possible to configure other Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services using the devices local web interface. Officially, it is not possible to configure GV using the local interface.
Rolandh!?? I didn't realize you were on reddit too! Are southpaw and louisdi here too? I use a different username here, since I was stuck with my first name + last initial on the RW forums.
I drop into Reddit on occasion. I think the same is true for southpaw and louisdi but don't know about the frequency. Some familiar names from RW's old Community are at [rwusers.com](https://rwusers.com) as well.